Cole Henry back up with Nationals

Henry was shipped back to the minors after throwing 44 pitches in relief against the Astros on Monday night. The Nationals will make a corresponding move to bring up a fresh bullpen arm prior to Tuesday’s contest.

Henry threw 36 pitches over two innings on Friday night and may not have been available for multiple innings on Sunday if needed, so the Nationals promoted Riley Cornelio to take his place on Sunday. Henry, 26, holds a disappointing 6.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP and a 13/6 K/BB ratio over 12 innings in 10 appearances with the Nats this season.

Henry provides Washington with some additional bullpen depth heading into Friday’s series opener against the Padres. The 26-year-old reliever is back after missing nearly seven weeks recovering from a rotator cuff strain. He made seven appearances for the Nationals prior to hitting the injured list last month.

That unaggressive placement would seem to signal that Henry is a ways from rejoining the club. He should be around at some point in June or July, but there’s not much to speculate on here at the moment and he doesn’t need to be rostered while on IL in the vast majority of leagues.

Henry had a rough start to the season, and perhaps this explains it. No word yet on how long the 26-year-old will be out, but a rotator cuff strain is never great news for a pitcher.

Clayton Beeter was off today after working the previous two days. Cole Henry seemed like he might be the primary fallback, but he came in mid-batter in the seventh today after a Ken Waldichuk injury and finished off a walk to Brice Turang before walking William Contreras and giving up a homer to Gary Sánchez. So, that won’t help his stock. The interesting thing there is that he was allowed to be removed after the homer, even though he officially faced just two batters; the initial walk was credited to Waldichuk yet still counted as far as the three-batter rule for Henry. PJ Poulin got four outs after replacing Henry, and Varland did a fine job in retiring Joey Ortiz, Turang and Contreras. Varland, who has allowed three runs in five innings, probably will be a factor in the ninth for the Nationals if Beeter struggles or gets hurt.

The Nationals tried to piece things together in the ninth today. Clayton Beeter stranded two runners after coming in with one out in the eighth. He went on to retire Justin Crawford to start the ninth, but he was pulled in favor of lefty PJ Poulin after Trea Turner singled. Poulin walked Kyle Schwarber, got Bryce Harper to pop out and then walked Alec Bohm before being lifted in favor of Henry, who probably would have pitched to Bohm if not for the three-batter rule. Henry gave up a two-run single to Edmundo Sosa, tying the game at 5-5, before walking Adolis García and retiring Brandon Marsh. Henry then remained in for the 10th after the Nationals failed to score in the top of the inning and took the loss after giving up singles to both batters he faced. Based on today’s results, Beeter’s stock should be up a little in comparison to Henry’s. Still, those two might go back and forth a few times. Plus, Henry wasn’t actually charged with an earned run today, while Beeter was.

Henry ended up not pitching Thursday after the Nationals upped their lead to six runs in the ninth. At this point, the Nationals likely just wanted to get him some work, and he had an easy 11-pitch inning against the Cubs, striking out one. That should keep him available to pitch Sunday, and we’ll again have to wait and see what the Nationals do if they have a late lead.

It looks like the Nationals were setting things up for Cole Henry to get the save chance today, though he went unused in the bottom of the ninth after the team upped its lead from four runs to six runs in the top of the inning. It’s just a tiny bit of a surprise, as it looked like Beeter might have the edge over Henry at the end of the spring. Still, this is situation that figures to continue evolving over the course of the season, and because the Nationals still figure to be pretty bad, neither Beeter nor Henry seems like a must-roster guy right now.

Teams typically use their better relievers early in games in spring training, but it seemed like manager Blake Butera wanted Beeter to have the chance to close this one out. It didn’t happen — the Nationals were shut out — but it’s the thought that counts. Beeter and Cole Henry, who worked a scoreless second today, seem like the favorite for saves in D.C. There probably won’t be a bunch to go around, though.